The First Lady & Daughter

Tonight Dave & I meet Laura & Jenna Bush. They were at the Borders Bookstore in Dallas to sign their new book "Read All About It!" We also bought Jenna's book "Ana's Story" and had her sign it. It was the most controlled book signing either of us have ever been to.
Dave went in the morning to buy the books and get our wrist bands - Blue, the 5th group to go in. We meet after work and got their at about 6:45pm. It officially started at 7pm but when we were walking up there were already people leaving. We heard latter they started early. After waiting for a long time (we don't know how long because neither of us had our cell phones. They told us not to bring in bags and we knew security would be tight so we brought in the bare minimum.) When we entered the store we had what little we had searched and then had to walk through a metal detector. Then we headed to one side of the store, back a few aisles, then to almost the other side of the store. We were stopped and allowed to walk one at a time to the back of the store (I think that was the exit route and Secret Service didn't want it blocked) As we walked past you could see where Laura & Jenna were sitting - about 3 Secret Service were facing them and about 3 were facing us. We then walked in a circle around this section of the store before arriving at the end of the line where we were reminded to not put our hands in our pockets or make any sudden moves. We spent about 30 seconds in front of them - no small talk or hand shaking. Then we could stand behind a rope and take pictures. Here are some - not very good but, hey, it is the first lady & daughter. I also took some pictures of the books and autographs. It was an experience and since they will soon be neighbors we thought we should welcome them!!!

Our rent-a-kids came and spent a weekend with us while their grandma (Liz's Sister) rested after surgery & their mom & dad(Liz's niece & nephew-in-law) went to work. We put them to work in the yard. The three sitting on the dog kennel clipped twigs inbetween sitting on the dog kennel!! JR willingly mowed our entire backyard and most of the front yard. And if you've seen our backyard that is quite a feat for a 10 year old. After the work was done, we all headed for the city pool. Then back home for a BBQ. JR & Dave are quite a team!!

On Thursday, April 24th 2008 I went to the to the book signing for Valerie Bertinelli's book "Losing It". When at the front of the line I heard Valerie tell her boyfriend, Tom, "There's a 7-11 across the street, I am sure that they have Ibuprofen for you". Since I am not known for being shy I said "You need Ibuprofen?" Turns out that Tom had a bad sinus headaches so I told Tom and Valerie that I sold Ibuprofen and that after she signed the book I would "stock them up". Valerie was super nice and down to earth and I had a good time talking to her and her boyfriend Tom. Now if they had just given me some VIP concert tickets for the Van Halen show that night in Dallas.....

Denver

On my trip to Denver I got to hang out with our old neighbors, Doug & Kit, and their two adorable kids. I stopped by Sunday night after I got into town and was feed some great ribs! After having some fun with the kids I headed back to my hotel. I was glad to be safe in my room when our hotel was robbed that night. One of my co-workers witnessed the robery. And another came back to the hotel when the police were running around the courtyard looking for the man. The one thing we couldn't figure out was why would you rob a hotel - do they even have any cash? To make the week even more exciting some crazy maniac hit our mirror while we were waiting in the center lane to make a left turn. After seeing parts fly we stopped and checked it out and luckily our mirror bounced right back. After two days of training, I headed back to Texas after our plane flew around a storm. To top off my wonderful week, I woke up Thursday with a horrible stomache virus.

Chipotle Heaven!

The Original Chipotle!!
Denver Colorado

I went to Denver on business to train the new payroll & HR people.

While their I got to eat lunch at the very first Chipotle!

Hail Sale

On Tuesday April 8th we were awakened at about 11:30pm by the sound of our roof caving in or so we thought. Hail was pounding against our bedroom window. It wasn't as big as a baseball or a golf ball, but it could be compared to a marble. We were spared the next week when another hail storm came.

Texas weather is never boring!!

How the system works

We have had a lot of questions about what comes next in our process. So I just wanted to let everyone know that our file has been submitted a few times. When our case worker hears of kids that she thinks we would be a good match for she sends our file to the kids case worker. We know very little about the kids she submitted our file for. Usually ages, gender & race. So far I think we've kept it under 6 years old, but who knows what the next one will bring. We were notified today that one of the case workers that has our file has narrowed it down to "a few" files. Ours is one of them. The kids case workers and all those involve on their side will get together in the next couple of weeks and discuss the "few" files they have. They will talk with the case workers of those families, including ours. Our case worker will continue to look for kids while this is happening because we may not be the ones picked. While this is exciting, it is not a done deal. It is my hope that the childrens case worker will find the best family for them. And while I think we're a pretty great family we may not be the best family for these kids. After all, it's all about the kids!! So we continue to wait and pray. If you do want to pray with us, don't pray that we get picked, pray that all involved in this decision will be insipired to find the best family for these kids. And if it's us, we will definately need your prayers. :)